My huband Joseph and I adopted three half-sisters from foster care 7 years ago. They had been horribly abused. Abject pedophiles had access to them…two men, from what we can tell. One, due to our efforts was sentenced to ten years in prison.
The two oldest girls were the sexually abused ones. The little one was physically abused and went hungry a lot, but was not sexually abused. And she’s the one of the three who’s making it.
The oldest is in Manhattan somewhere. She phones now and then. She’s selling her body in the sex trade and pedling drugs on the side.
The middle one just took off with some guy she met on Facebook. She’s left a few phone messages. We don’t have a clue where she is. She’s been gone five days, going into the sixth day.
Funny thing is, I wrote a manuscript four years ago about a girl who is found murdered not far from where we live by a man she met online. I’d been getting it ready for submission when my daughter ran off. Life can mirror fiction, just as fiction can mirror life.
I’ve been very affected by the 9/11 anniversary this year. I’ve played a number of the songs from the Concert For New York City — in 2001 just after the terrorist attack.
I find myself playing David Bowie’s Heroes, from that concert. It resonates with me in my own personal hell. I want to swim like the dolphins swim. I want to be free like the dolphins, and yet I am chained to the computer combing Facebook, looking for anyone who might know where my daughter is.
My husband and I were heroes for a day, adopting them, having dreams for them…and then the evil of the world consumed them again…swallowed them.
I write of this evil in my Christian crime fiction novels…for which I’m seeking a publisher. I tell stories of the evil consuming children, devouring them while so many of us are playing at church. We’re so pioulsy polite, and the enemy, the destroyer is glad we are…as we’re largely ineffectual against him.
We’re afraid to touch the girl in the sex trade and if we won’t touch her, how can we give her a hand up and out? We don’t understand when she rejects us and the wonderful Christian life we offer…and runs back to hell. And it’s hell on earth. It’s all too easy for us to heap judgement upon her.
The old addage, hate the sin/love the sinner, is all too true. We must hate the life she’s run back to, and yet somehow try to communicate to her how worthwhile she is.
To see the David Bowie music video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdo5f_ozf6E
